Reflecting on defeat, all remaining time at the sports center was invested in the shooting range.
Whether it was for enjoyment or any other reason, I was determined to dive headfirst into the game, even if it was just me, igniting my eyes with the hope of scoring well.
With each passing round, I gained some consolation from the gradually improving scores, and thus the last schedule of the study trip came to an end.
After the experience at the sports center, we headed to another floor of the same building for a meal.
Once on the bus back to school, an indescribable sense of emptiness and drowsiness enveloped my whole body.
As I blinked my tired eyes, I threw a few words to Shiyeon, who naturally sat beside me.
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah… Hwaah.”
In response to the question about having fun, Shiyeon covered her mouth and let out a big yawn.
Her growing mouth and trembling body.
As if she was about to fall asleep at any moment, I continued speaking while looking at her lazily lifting and dropping her eyelids.
“Take all the clothes out of your bag as soon as we get home.”
“Okay…”
Shiyeon responded while placing her bag between her legs on the floor, just like on the first day of the study trip.
For ordinary students, it would be time to head home and get some sleep, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for us.
I had dishes to wash that I didn’t manage to get to on the first day of the trip, clothes to launder from the study trip, and Gomtaengi to deal with…
Anyway, just because the trip was over didn’t mean it truly ended.
The three-day journey, which felt both long and short, left us as exhausted students.
Where had the enthusiastic and noisy friends from the first day gone? The bus was filled with only a serene silence.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, I didn’t want to even move my lips, feeling drowsy.
Pressing my back against the seat and shutting my eyes tight, I tried to sleep somehow.
In the darkness, the distant sound of a smartphone camera shutter clicked.
“Hey, don’t take pictures of me sleeping!”
“Chuuujjimaaa~”
After a commotion of various sounds, the bus finally came to a stop in the school playground after three hours.
My bag felt incredibly heavy, as if my arms and legs were shackled.
“Thank you for your hard work-”
Leaving a word of thanks to the driver, who had worked hard for three days, I followed the teacher’s guide and started to disembark from the front in order.
Even though I had only sat on the bus, I felt like I didn’t want to move a single step.
Walking with heavy footsteps that felt weak enough to twist my ankles if I wasn’t careful, I waited for a moment in the playground.
A terrible fatigue clung to me, and I wanted to call a taxi to go home.
“Everyone has worked hard during the three days of the study trip, and to prevent worrying your parents, don’t stray off and just go straight home, understood?”
“Yes-”
After responding with an excited voice to the homeroom teacher’s words, I began to head home.
I wanted to lie down immediately, but I couldn’t just lay on the dirt of the playground.
With Shiyeon blinking her sleepy eyes beside me, I quickened my steps toward home.
Shiyeon could just take off her clothes, wash up, and sleep, but I had a mountain of chores waiting for me.
“Bye.”
“Baba.”
I parted ways with Taehyun at the fourth floor of the elevator.
As I was manipulating my hand on the opposite side while entering the front door password, pondering how to deal with this Gomtaengi kid even with drowsy eyes, sure enough, beyond the suddenly opened front door…
“Welcome home!!!”
The little Gomtaengi had pressed her face flat to the floor, welcoming us, or more precisely, welcoming me with great respect to alleviate her guilt.
“I finished the dishes while you were gone! Vacuuming! Mopping! Everything’s done!”
Was she accurately aware of what I was thinking? The Gomtaengi laid out her accomplishments without being asked about them.
However, her negligence regarding the critical monster alert duties was significant, so when I brought my hands close to her face to deliver a destructive punishment…
“Um, and… I’ll wash and hang out the clothes you wore during the trip!!!”
Pausing, my hand that was about to crush her halted at the interesting proposal.
The chores I was supposed to do upon returning home were piled up laundry in her bag.
If I could get both things done at once, I could simply wash up and collapse into bed.
After three seconds of contemplating between strict punishment and forgiving her,
“Then, make sure to tidy up the bag.”
“Yes, I’ll take care of it!”
Due to the accumulated fatigue from the last three days, I decided to raise the hand of forgiveness.
As soon as I set the heavy bag down in the empty space between the living room and the kitchen and opened the zipper to pull out my clothes, the Gomtaengi emerged, changing into fluffy indoor clothes.
After roughly washing up in the bathroom, I collapsed onto the bed in the dark room.
It seemed Shiyeon was also quite sleepy, as she dashed into the bathroom as soon as I exited.
Indeed, nothing compared to sleeping on a bed rather than grabbing a quick nap on the bus.
After wasting the last day of the trip…
“Alright everyone, don’t get too complacent just because the study trip ended!”
Right after the trip ended, the second mid-term exam arrived.
In other words, it was the final exam period.
However, this wasn’t an issue that particularly concerned or stressed Shiyeon or me.
Neither of us had a specific target for high school.
Thus, instead of studying hard, we aimed to do our best within a reasonable scope.
I viewed the final exam period as a warning bell signaling the start of vacation.
Neither Shiyeon nor I were geniuses, so even with proactive studying, our grades were barely sustainable as they gradually fell.
On the other hand, as grades fell, Shiyeon’s artistic skills steadily rose in proportion.
They say where you lose some, you gain some, right?
For Shiyeon, she lost grades but gained artistic talent.
It seemed she was now producing results that were rather satisfactory, and without telling me which site she was uploading her art to, she would often show it to me first.
Just before summer vacation, when the first semester’s exams were over, her results had become comparable to those of a decent illustrator.
Similarly, while I may have lost grades, I had gained something too…
If I had to point it out, it would be that I had grown taller like everyone else?
Or maybe my rank in the game’s competitive matches rose higher?
Yeah. Honestly speaking, I didn’t gain much at all.
‘I shouldn’t be like this.’
I was starting to seriously consider my future in this life.
Though it was a trendy saying from a year ago, here I was, riding the “average life” route outside of monster hunting, often seen in communities.
Sure, money was coming in, and I was doing some sort of work…
But was it perhaps because I could see Shiyeon’s brilliant progress right next to me, as she took steps toward her dreams?
I felt like I was the only one standing still.
True, I had the assurance of a stable future as a civil servant if I quit this magic clown job…
But wouldn’t it be nice to have a productive hobby that I genuinely found enjoyable? That thought lingered in my mind.
While I pondered on this, my computer was malfunctioning once again today.
In the midst of the sounds of the system booting up, a different vibration resonated.
It was the vibrating sound of my smartphone signifying that I had an incoming call.
Without much concern, I looked at my smartphone screen, which displayed that the caller ID was restricted.
No need to think about who it could be; I immediately sensed it was about magic girl business.
After all, even voice phishing calls nowadays don’t use restricted caller IDs.
‘What’s up?’
Tilting my head in confusion, I mindlessly swiped at the green phone icon on the screen.
The person who usually gathered everyone for a meeting was calling me individually for a change?
I greeted the person on the other side of the smartphone with a formal greeting, along with my doubts.
“Hello.”
“Yes, hello. Is this student Kim Mary?”
A familiar voice from the video conference.
The minister, who did not refer to me as magic girl but instead addressed me by my name along with the title of student.
I spoke without any assurance that it was indeed the magic girl on the other end.
It seemed as though she was trying to adhere to confidentiality principles, so I calmly responded as if talking to a stranger.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Recently, I have a few questions regarding the monster extermination activities. Please check the webpage link I’ll send you after this call.”
‘Recent extermination activities? A link?’
After asking me to check the link, the call ended with a beep.
As I stared at my smartphone screen, a small message notification slid down.
At the bottom of the screen, a white number 1 surrounded by a red circle appeared on the message icon.
A single line of a link was sent without any other message.
The link, which I recognized after seeing it several times, seemed to lead to a post from some gallery.
What could possibly be so great about this post? Thoughtlessly clicking on the link, the title of the post read…
[Chilling Chilling Incheon Monster Appearance Time.jpg]
From the monster gallery, a single post began.
This post listed the times of monster appearances in Incheon over the past few years, pointing out the patterns of monsters that only appeared during specific time frames, raising issues about unnatural aspects.
